Lucky Obukohwo Reporting
The joy of the Coordinator, Home for the Needy Foundation, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho and that of the Book Haram Internally Displaced inmates new no bounds at the camp in Ohogua, Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State as eighteen of the over three hundred inmates in different universities in and outside Edo State graduated with flying colours.
Among the eighteen fresh graduates was Amos Ishaku, who despite all odds, bagged a first class in Chemical Engineering from the Edo State University, Uzairue. Amos was the best graduating student in his faculty with a cumulative GPA of 4.80.
Celebrating the joy of the moment, Folorunsho, while addressing a press conference said, he feels fulfilled seeing the Internally Displaced Persons, who nobody had given any chance in life, succeed adding that the Home for the Needy Foundation started in 1992 as a non governmental, non profit making organization engaged in providing shelter, education, health services and other welfare service to internally Displaced Persons across Nigeria.
According to him, “We want the world to know that something good is coming from Home for the Needy Foundation. It has been in existence since 1992. It is a place where homeless and vulnerable children come. Women that are oppressed, women that are abused.
In 2012, we started working with Internally Displaced People(IDP) from the north. People who never went to school, people who were lightly educated. Today, we have good results coming out from here. Here we have a young man who just graduated, he has bagged a first class, others have second class upper.
” We want to draw the attention of the government of Nigeria to see what we are doing here. We are contributing to government efforts.
“Doing things to make sure that those who have no opportunity are giving opportunity in this country.”
Continuing, Folorunsho said, the aims and objectives of the Foundation is to help the needy, such as orphans, street children, children from broken homes, those from poor families, among others.
“Our aims and objectives are to help the needy in the society, such as orphans, street children, children from broken homes, those from poor families. Also, out-of-school children, widows, internally displaced persons, refugees among others.
“It is also to provide accommodation, food, clothing primary health care and quality education (from nursery level to tertiary level) to the needy.
“To provide skill acquisition and sporting facilities to the over 3,000 inmates living in the camp and depending on the Foundation for their day-to-day upkeep including feeding, education, medical care and clothing.”
Speaking on how he arrived the camp and educational journey, Amos Ishaku, from Gwoza Local Government Area of Brono State, said he joined the IDP camp in 2014 , having drop-out of school in 2012 due to the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State.
“I was in SS11 when I dropped out from school. That was the first time I experienced Boko Haram attack, since then our school was closed indefinitely, that was how I never went back to school until 2014 when I heard about the Home for the Needy.
“I heard about it through my headmaster. Who knew me in primary school. We were displaced from one place to another. My parents went their way and the last time I heard about my parents, I was told that my mother was in Cameroon.
“When I came, I was not expecting anything, but at least to have a place to sleep,and maybe food to eat.
“When I came all I was hearing was gun shots and death all over the place as a result of my experience in Borno State. I started in SS11. I wrote WAEC in 2016 and all my results were F9. I almost gave up, but my Daddy here never gave up.
“He always encouraged us to continue that we can make it and that the society needs us despite what we may have experienced.
“In 2017, I wrote, WAEC, NECO and NABTEB and did not make it, but in 2019, I repeated it and made NECO. That was the result I used to gain admission into Edo State University Uzairue.” Ishaku said.
The eighteen graduates are among the over three hundred undergraduates scattered across various universities in Nigeria studying various courses such as Law, Medicine and Surgery, Nursing and Midwifery, Engineering, Accounting, Microbiology among others.